Port Phillip Composting
Just in: email update from the Port Phillip composting trial:
Dawkins Reserve Pilot Status
Month 3 ish
Dane and I headed down to the compost bins on Sunday to see how they were doing. Bin 3 was in a bad way, so with gloves, buckets and shovels we undertook a bit of a compost intervention:
localcomposting.wordpress.com…
This includes some tips on better working compost.
We’ve also been really pleased to see the numbers of users of the bins growing (we estimate between 30 and 40 households are using them, so about 5% of our target area) and to have some great Key Composters helping us maintain the bins (getting the mix right, removing a lot of garden waste and keeping the site free of litter etc).
Cheers!
The Community Composting Team
You can get email updates from them by registering on their web page:
localcomposting.wordpress.com…
Go the composters – some folks talk; others compost.
Michael
BTW, a late reply, but the fungal gnats are what people often call fruit flies. They are attracted by mouldy fruit and veg. We solved the problem by using sheets of newspaper to cover the bin contents.
alex, can you please explain what you mean by fungal Gnats?? can you post a picture?..
if the compost bin has a healthy balanced community of compost microbiological species present..you should have no problems with odour or fungal diseases.. the main points being that the pile must no exceed 65 degrees celcius for long periods of time and it must have enough oxygen to maintain aerobic decompostion processes …if it goes anaerobic you will start to have problems..
Hi Michael
You are quick on the draw – I only just sent out that email!
Apart from what we’ve found (mixing/covering), do you have any advice on combatting the fungal gnats? They can be very offputting to some residents.
Sorry to see your bins being torched – we have fingers crossed nothing happens to ours (especially our lovely hand-built brown bin!).